World Vision provided the funds to Obed with which he’s devised an innovative project — a type of “Amber Alert” that uses village drums to signal when a child has gone missing. In the place where Obed works — Mukono District, which is infamous for witchcraft — children who go missing may end up dead: sacrificed by witchdoctors who claim that body parts like their hearts and heads can solve medical ailments or bring prosperity to a family.

In the year since he began the project with the community, two children have been rescued. For that, Obed rejoices. But he is sickened by two other cases of boys whose bodies were found in a field, their hearts and heads removed.

Obed fights against evil. In a way, he is a Ugandan superhero.

But being a superhero comes at a cost.

In the last year, Obed has lost weight because he works long hours, using a motorbike to travel over bumpy dirt roads in Mukono District — working with the community to mobilize against child sacrifice and working with the witchdoctors to get them to stop. He says he looks like a different person now. People sometimes don’t recognize him because he is so skinny.

Obed used to live in the community, but one night an angry mob came to his home, banging on his door and his walls, letting him know that he was no longer safe. He moved the next day.

Obed knows that every day of his life he is taking a risk. When you are working against evil, you are working against a powerful force.

He asked us for prayer — to keep him safe from harm — but says he will never stop in his quest to protect children.

Obed is thirsty for justice.

“If a life is saved,” he says, “there is no greater good than that.”

Echoes of our Lord and Savior who thirsted on the cross — not just for water but for the kind of justice that can only be had through sacrifice.